Henny Ray Abrams | September 5, 2009
Yamaha’s Josh Hayes took advantage of a rare race crash by Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin to win Saturday’s American Superbike race at New Jersey Motorsports Park and take over second in the championship standings.Mladin took the lead at the start and was inching away before Hayes began to reel him in. Hayes made the pass into turn one on the eighth lap and held it until the 12th, when Mladin made the pass for the lead in the same place.Entering turn one on the 13th lap Mladin had just passed Hayes when he tucked the front and slid into the gravel. Hayes finished the lap with a lead of 7.016 secs. which he maintained until the final few laps before he was slowed by lappers.”The sheer number of lappers was pretty astounding,” Hayes said after winning his third race in a row, today by 1.419 secs. Later he added, “It cost me two seconds a lap every time I got hung up on somebody.”As for his third win in a row, he said, “I’m just glad I was able to do it for the team.”With only Sunday’s season finale to run, Hayes moved into second with 375 points to 428 for Mladin. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden, today’s second place finisher, dropped to third with 373.Hayden was part of the podium battle that included Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates and Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram. Hayden passed Pegram on the 16th lap and Yates on the 19th lap. Yates finished third.Pegram would fade to fifth behind Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom, the fourth place finisher.Behind Pegram came Taylor Knapp (Bue) and Blake Young, the third of the Rockstar Makita Suzukis.Then a gap to Cory West in his first race on the Erik Buell Racing 1125R.Australian Damian Cudlin finished ninth in his first Superbike ride on the Celtic Racing Suzuki, with he, Geoff May (National Guard Jordan Suzuki) and Holden Racing’s Jake Holden (Hon) separated by .342 secs.
Results:
1. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
2. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
4. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
5. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
6. Taylor Knapp (Buell)
7. Blake Young (Suzuki)
8. Cory West (Buell)
9. Damian Cudlin (Suzuki)
10. Geoff May (Suzuki)
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
